SEAN MONTgomerY ON THE RUN MASTERSON, ponders on the morality of
wargaming in general and finds himself fighting fires in olde London

IT SEEMS as if not only is it all quiet on the western front
this month, but on every front. Horror of horrors, is this column going to
disappear into oblivion just when I had begun to make it worth while reading?
Maybe — but just on the assumption that it won’t, I’ll take
this month’s lack of review material as an opportunity to present a
discussion for your consideration. It’s a subject which many have
discussed before but not, to my knowledge, within the pages of CRASH, therefore
it shouldn’t be redundant.

Consider the morality of wargames. When you load a wargame (no matter what
the subject), your sole aim is to cooly and precisely kill people of
conflicting ideologies. Many modern wargames bring this point closest to home
with the subject of nuclear exchange. Now I’m not arguing that limited
nuclear exchange is possible and that such a war could be won, but nevertheless
do any of you pause before hitting the red button? Even in a game, would you
rather lose before resorting to the most desperate means or is winning that
important?

There are those who argue that wargaming is unhealthy because it breeds
cynicism and callousness. Having been a wargamer for some years now, I often
overheard conversations by table-top generals boasting about how they had won
an engagement by ‘napalming the lot of them’ or ‘nuking them
and got away with it.’ Then, in more conventional games there are those
whose fumbling, incompetent handling of a situation causes them to throw entire
units (or armies) away on lost causes. Or they fight to the death so they can
say they have never surrendered. If you have come across any of these people,
you can see why there are those who think the whole hobby is a perverse waste
of time.

My argument would be that these boastful buffoons are the ones who have
totally missed the point of wargaming. They are the egotistical bigots who
exist in any society and have simply clung to wargaming to fulfil their need to
sound superior. Unfortunately wargaming does attract rather more than its fair
share of this sort. But wargaming, if it breeds anything, breeds pacifism. If
there is any point to wargaming at all, then this must be it. Rarely does
anyone win their first wargame. Instead they see their armies wiped out
(usually by the computer) all because of the instructions they gave to their
troops. They learn that it can be no fun to play with men’s lives. Or
perhaps wargames can show the futility of war itself. Certainly, from an
abstract point of view, they can discipline the mind and encourage logical
thinking. But never, never should they be used as a vehicle to revel in the
grotesquerie of the real thing.

It may be that you decide to employ nuclear weapons in a game and that as a
result of your actions you win. But it should be important to remember that if
the game makes such a victory possible, then it is only reflecting the
designer’s philosophy and not hard fact. And the best, indeed ideal
commander would be the one who could win a battle without any losses at all.
That would be the most efficient and palatable victory. Obviously, as an ideal
it is unlikely to be realised, even in a game. However, it can still act as a
guideline and if you had to use even one small tactical nuclear device, it
would have resulted in a phenomenal number of casualties. It should encourage
you to find a better way next time.

I will leave you to consider this. I once had an Atari computer which meant
I had access to SSI wargames (arguably the best home computer simulations in
the world). I was playing Reforger 88, a tactical simulation of a
Soviet invasion of West Germany, centred around the crucial Fulda Gap. I only
won the game once. The East Germans began their advance and I immediately
withdrew. The only combat which took place was air to air, where I fared well
and suffered few casualties. At the end of the second turn, unopposed, the
Soviets took Frankfurt. At this point, I called a truce. I was given a marginal
victory.